{"id":5843,"date":"2013-06-21T11:23:28","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T18:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/?p=5843"},"modified":"2013-06-21T11:46:27","modified_gmt":"2013-06-21T18:46:27","slug":"cultivating-holiness-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/2013\/06\/21\/cultivating-holiness-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultivating Holiness (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20130621_cultivatingholns2\"<\/p>\n

Believers are called to holy living. This is\u00a0the clear teaching of the Bible<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Throughout this next blog series, we want to consider the question:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow then does the believer cultivate holiness?\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The first way is to know and love Scripture<\/a>. Today we will discuss the second:<\/p>\n

Second, consider yourself dead to sin and alive in Christ.<\/h3>\n

If you are a Christian, you already are. Claim that. Regard yourself as dead to the dominion of sin and as alive to God in Christ (Rom. 6:11).<\/p>\n

\u201cTo realize this,\u201d writes Martyn Lloyd-Jones, \u201ctakes away from us that old sense of hopelessness which we have known and felt because of the terrible power of sin. I can say to myself that not only am I no longer under the dominion of sin, but I am under the dominion of another power that nothing can frustrate.\u201d1<\/sup><\/p>\n

This is not implying that because sin no longer reigns over us as believers we have license to forgo our duty to fight against sin. Jerry Bridges rightly admonishes us, \u201cTo confuse the potential for resisting sin (which God provided) with the responsibility for resisting (which is ours) is to court disaster in our pursuit of holiness.\u201d2<\/sup><\/p>\n

Westminster\u2019s Shorter Catechism balances God\u2019s gift and our responsibility when stating, \u201cSanctification is the work of God\u2019s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of god, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and to live unto righteousness\u201d.3<\/sup><\/p>\n

Seek to cultivate a growing hatred of sin as sin, for that is the kind of hatred against sin that God possesses. Recognize that God is worthy of obedience not only as the Judge, but especially as a loving Father. Say with Joseph in temptation \u201cHe is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9).<\/p>\n

The person who considers himself or herself dead to sin also looks for heart-idols. Pray for strength to uproot them and cast them out.<\/p>\n

What about you?<\/em> How do you think Romans 6:11 helps you cultivate holiness?<\/p>\n

1<\/sup> D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 6\u2014The New Man (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1972) , 144).
\n2<\/sup> Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 1978), 60.
\n3<\/sup> Question 35.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Believers are called to holy living. This is\u00a0the clear teaching of the Bible. Throughout this next blog series, we want to consider the question: \u201cHow then does the believer cultivate holiness?\u201d The first way is to know and love Scripture. Today we will discuss the second: Second, consider yourself dead to sin and alive in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":5844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-misc","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5843"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5847,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5843\/revisions\/5847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.blueletterbible.org\/blb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}